language exam review Flashcards
What are the 3 theories of language development?
- behaviorist
- nativist
- interactionist
What is the behaviorist theory of language development based on?
explains that language is learned thru operant conditioning and imitation
ex. reinforcement (correct vocalizations) vs. punishment / shaping
What is shapings role in language development?
parents shape children’s speech patterns by reinforcing those that are grammatical vs. punishing those that aren’t
What is the nativist theory of language development?
language development is an innate biological capacity
ex. universal grammar - a collection of processes that facilitate language learning
What is genetic dysphasia?
syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having normal intelligence
what is the interactionist theory of language development?
argues that social interactions play crucial role in language development
ex. social experience interacts with innate biological language abilities
What is the Broca’s area’s role in language?
language production - when damaged, people have hard time producing speech but comprehension is fine
What is the Wernicke’s area’s role in language?
language comprehension - people produce meaningless sentences
What is aphasia?
difficulty in producing/ comprehending language
What is a concept *in language
a mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects
–> brain organizes concepts into categories based on similarities
What is the prototype theory?
people make category judgments by comparing new instances to a prototype
ex: the concept of a bird… is a robin or ostrich a better example?
What is the exemplar theory?
people make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of category
ex: encountering a wolf or coyote and comparing it to your friend’s german sheherd
What is the rational choice theory?
we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two
–> judgement varies depending on the value of the outcome
What is the availability heuristic?
things that are more readily available in memory are judged as occurring more frequently
What is the conjunction fallacy?
thinking two events are more likely to occur together than either event occurring apart
What is the representation heuristic?
ignoring base rate info, and instead, making judgments by comparing to a prototype
What is the framing effect?
people give different answers to same problem, depending on how it’s framed
What is the 2-factor theory of intelligence? (Spearman)
general intelligence (g-factor) and specific intelligence (s-factor)
*people with higher g-factor learn new concepts quickly and solve complex problems easily
- people with high g-factor / develop specific skills (s-factor) more readily
*work together
What is universal grammar?
all languages contain nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and humans are born with an innate ability to acquire language
What is telegraphic speech?
early speech stage using mostly nouns/verbs
What is Thurston’s theory of primary mental abilities?
*suggests intelligence of a person can be divided amongst 7-different areas
- verbal comprehension
- verbal fluency
- numerical ability
- perceptual speed
- inductive reasoning
- spatial visualization
- memory
What is fluid vs. crystallized intelligence?
- fluid: ability to reason quickly and independently of own past experiences… relies heavily on working memory/ attention
- crystallized: ability to apply knowledge from prior learning that’s stored in long term memory… mostly formed by environment
What is a category-specific deficit?
an inability to recognize objects that belong to particular category, although ability to recognize objects outside of the category is undisturbed
ex. not recognizing human-made objects but knowledge of living things in in-tact
what is human language characterized by?
complex organization, phonemes to morphemes to phrases and finally sentences
What stage of development can children distinguish all contrasting sounds of human language? *other languages besides native
children can distinguish between all contrasting sounds of human language, but they lose that ability within the first 6 months
*vocal babbling occurs at about 4 yo 6 months, and first words are uttered or signed by 10 to 12 months - sentences emerging at around 24 months
How do children acquire grammatical rules?
children acquire grammatical rules in development, even without being explicity taught
What is the difference between behaviorist, nativist, and interactionists theory on language development?
- behaviorist is based on operant conditioning
- nativists believe that humans are biologically predisposed to process language
- interactionists explain it as both a biological and social process
What are the roles of the Broca’s and Wernicke’s area for language?
- Broca’s area is critical for language production
- Wernicke’s area is critical for comprehension
How do we organize knowledge?
we organize knowledge abt objects, events, or other stimuli by creating concepts, prototypes, and exemplars
What are the two theories on how we acquire concepts?
- prototype theory states that we use the most typical member of a category to assess new items
- exemplar theory states that we compare new items with stored memories of other members of the category
how does the brain organize concepts?
the brain organizes concepts into distinct categories, such as living things, and human-made things; visual experience is not necessary for the development of such categories
How do people make probability judgments?
people will turn the problem into something they know how to solve, such as judging memory strength, judging similarity to prototypes, or estimating frequencies
–> this can lead to judgment errors
how does the framing effect influence our choices?
because we feel that avoiding losses is more important than achieving gains
emotional information also strongly influences our decision making, even when not aware of it
What role does the prefrontal cortex play in decision making?
influences people to make more risky decisions when they have damage to this part of the brain compared to healthy individuals
People who score well on one test of mental ability tend to score how? on others
people who score well on one test of mental ability tend to score well on others, which suggests that each person has a particular level of general intelligence (g), but they don’t always score well on every other test, which suggests that different people have specific abilities (s)
research reveals several middle-level abilities between g and s
what are the three middle level intelligence abilities that standard intelligence tests DON’T measure?
- practical
- creative
- emotional
the combing of words to form phrases and sentences is governed by?
syntactic rules
evidence suggests that exemplar-based learning involves analysis and decision making involving which area of the brain?
prefrontal cortex
most scientists now believe that intelligence is best described ?
by a three-level hierarchy
